Elohozino Oghale Benneth^1-3*, Oluwaseun Peace Ajakaye¹, Abdulsabur Adebayo Aderemi², Emmanuel, Onche², Isaac Babatunde Fasipe², Samuel Ijabo Ogah^4,5 and Gbemiga Oladimeji Adeyemo¹

¹1Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture-University of Ibadan, Nigeria
²2Department of Animal Welfare Science, Food and Agricultural Technology Unit-The Pan African Research Group, Nigeria
³Animal Welfare Research Unit, One Health and Development Initiative, Nigeria
⁴Department of Aquaculture, Food and Agricultural Technology Unit - The Pan African Research Group, Nigeria
⁵Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Faculty of Agriculture, Federal University of Gashua, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author: Elohozino Oghale Benneth, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture-University of Ibadan, Nigeria.

Received: November 22, 2021 Published: December 21, 2021

Abstract

Studies have shown that animal proteins have a more balanced amino acid profile compared with plant proteins. Commercial layers over the years have played a key role in contributing generously to the percentage of animal proteins in form of eggs and meat. Also belonging to the monogastric group of animals, they have been found to possess an exceptional ability in efficiently converting nutrients to high quality animal protein. Since there is no single source of protein that will provide all the amino acids in the feed ration, a combination of proteins from different feedstuffs can be formulated to meet this requirement. Some researchers have reported that the reduced inclusion of Crude Protein (CP) in the diet will neither impair egg production in birds nor affect their welfare but it will reduce the egg production of that bird. Some studies show that the external characteristics of eggs are not influenced by nutrient density in the diets of laying birds except the inclusion level of amino acids, calcium, and phosphorus is altered in the diet. Other studies report that within the bounds of accepted commercial practice, the internal characteristics of eggs are largely unaffected by the nutrition of a bird. The aim of this study was to determine if egg quality characteristics as well as the welfare of laying hens will be affected by maintaining the amino acid amount required by the birds but varying the crude protein level in the diets of laying hens. It was also done to ascertain a permissible inclusion level of crude protein in the diet of commercial laying hens. 240 Black Hacko birds were used for 8 weeks feeding experiment at 25 weeks of age. Dietary treatments 1,2,3,4 and 5, with crude protein inclusion levels at 15.96%, 15.02%, 14.04%, 13.05% and 12.05% respectively, were allotted to the randomly divided birds of 8 per replicate and six replicates per treatment. The amino acid amount (methionine - 0.10% and Lysine - 0.15%) were kept constant across the treatments. For both the internal and external egg quality characteristics, there was no significant difference (p > 0.05) between the treatments. Conclusively, the welfare of commercial layers with regards to behaviour and production will not be negatively affected by varying the CP inclusion level between 15.96% - 12.05% provided the required amino acid is kept constant.

Keywords: Egg; Crude-Protein; Amino-Acids; Yolk; Albumen; Eggshell

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Citation

Citation: Elohozino Oghale Benneth., et al. “The Effect of Varying Dietary Crude Protein and Keeping Amino Acid Constant on Egg Quality Characteristics". Acta Scientific Veterinary Sciences 4.1 (2022): 119-126.

Copyright

Copyright: © 2022 Elohozino Oghale Benneth., et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.